I lured Spence and Scout up on the new cedar bench with a fortune cookie this morning, just to show everyone we are still around, just not doing much exciting this summer. (Scout sez, "Quit teasing and give me the $%&# cookie!")
I finally got around to putting the cedar bench together yesterday, and for those who admired it when it posted about it here, let me tell you that it was a breeze to put together. I am already thinking about moving this one in front of the glider as a "coffee table" and buying this one for more storage.
I have to admit it's a bit of an adjustment to me having a retired conformation dog - more of an adjustment than I thought it would be and much more of an adjustment for me than it is for Scout. She seems to love being a yard dog and in the evening being wherever I am.
To me, it feels strange to have no dog shows on the calendar for the foreseeable future. I have started Scout back in obedience, but it will be a while before she is trial ready. I am thinking about running her through Rally Novice again; she has her title, but I think it might be good for us to get used to being in a ring together again. Training her is so different from working with Spencer - both easier and harder. Easier because she is not as hard-headed and pushy as her brother, harder because she is not as driven, either. We'll figure it out.
Hope everyone is having the kind of weekend they want, and staying cool!
3 comments:
Do you think she's not as driven because she's more used to conformation being the priority? Maybe with time when she knows that her focus has shifted, maybe she'll become more driven? I'm getting ready to retire my bitch from the conformation ring, but what we did was nothing like campaining a Top 20 dog. Thankfully Bess is plenty driven and ready to hit the performance rings full time!
We'll see - but I think it is just her personality. Scout has always been a much more easy going dog than Spencer. And just to be clear, I think Scout has plenty of potential to be a good performance dog. I just have to adjust my training because I am more used to dealing with completely-over-the-top-pushy Spencer
It's funny to think of Spencer as over the top pushy, since brother Wilson is anything but when it comes to performance venues. Now, of course, pick up a stick anywhere near water, and you'd better look out! Too bad stick drive never translated over to his agility....
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